Am I hardship candidate?

[stewie082]

Hi All, thank you all for a wonderful site that is packed with information and its resident members are all extra mile people who are sincere and willing to help! A rare quality!

Where do I start! I have been a customer of Lloyds Tsb for close on three years now and have run up huge amounts in bank charges and returned debits etc etc. At my last calculation it was in excess of £5600, this was in May. I had my salary moved to my wife's account and all debits stopped and to run of her account, essentially just leaving a small balance, since May an additional £780 worth of fees have been added. After all the calls, letters I got my finger out and called and asked for the account to be suspended. They did this by increasing the overdraft limit and suspending the account. I suffer from "head in the sand syndrome"

The reasons for my hardship is that I am/was a compulsive gambler. It took mortgage arrears , countless interest charges, CCJ and finally a call from the courts to my wife to bring me back into the real world and to face upto to devastation I have caused. My bank statement is a like a horror story and my credit status cant go lower.
Since my "coming clean" with family and my work I am now left with the trail of payments and debts that need to be addressed. The head in the sand syndrome wont cut it anymore.

I need all the finance help I can get. I was lucky enough to have some help from the company I work for to help with getting back upto date with the arrears on my mortgage, I was two weeks away from repossession so I am told.

I have a wife who works part time and two young daughters, I dont know they have stuck by me after my stupidity.

I have tried to clear the high APR (payday type loans) and trying to get everything back upto date but its not going to great. I am still running in negative balance every month and the fees that I have run up would be a blessing and would put me back on the right path.

Since being caught out I have been a dedicated member of GA and attend two meetings a week. I have not even thought about placing any type of bet in 4 months, I have NO access to any monies and have self excluded myself from everything and part of the GAMblock programe. My finances are taken care of by my wife and the finance director of the company I work for. I am lucky to have them at my side. But its upto me to try repair the rest.

I have requested my statements a month ago and to date I have had nothing. I filled out a template letter found on another site, No reply to this either. But according to Lloyds they do have a record of my dispute dated June 16? But this was telephonically to some friendly chap in India.

I have requested all the statements on my credit cards, personal loans, secured loans etc. (the trail of a compulsive gambler)

Any help would be greatly helpful.

Thanks again for a great and informative site.

God Bless
Stew

[Amy]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Hi Stewie,

That was very brave putting your thoughts into that post.

So you've asked for your statements, but not received them. Did you include the £10 maximum fee with your letter? When did you send the letter?

Have you had any correspondence at all with regard to your claims? Have you had any problems with DCA's?

[stewie082]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Hi Amy,

Thanks for replying. I have been a member of your site for some time now it took a while to pluck up the courage to post my story.

I know my situation is of my own doing and my reckless behaviour has caused pain to my family and this is why I am trying to put up the good fight.
I am trying to undo the wrong's I have done, this is why I am wondering am I a hardship case? or is it just because im the village idiot who was a sucker for bright lights and the chase of the big win.

If it wasnt for the total lack of responce from Lloyds I would still be ok. I even went into the branch when I started getting into to much debt asking them to exclude all transactions from Gambling sites. They told me its not thier problem. They could see multiple transactions from gaming sites coming off my account, sometimes 15-20 per day.
I called Lloyds so many times to try avoid bank fees and try make payments to stop them and they had no mercy. I am tierd of calling the central number and being pushed from pillar to post with no-one even hearing of a hardship ruling or willing to help.

Yes I did post a cheque for £10 along with my request for the statement. I got the template from Martin Lewis website. They do have a record of my dispute on file according to the gent I spoke to India but thats all they noted on the "system" . I resubmitted another request two weeks ago just incase they didnt receive the first one. This time I went into the branch with my letter and the cheque for £10. To date nothing at all.

I dont know what a DCA is?

Thanks again for reading and getting back to me!
Stew

[Amy]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Do not write to them again Stewie. Everything should be kept to letters from now on.

You need to sue them for non compliance of the DPA. I'll find you the links as soon as I track them down.

[littlesally]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Keep copies and dates of all letters you send, Stew
Sally xx

[Celestine]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Did you send your original DPA recorded delivery? If yes, have you tracked the online track & trace at the PO website?
If not...you have no proof they received the DPA request.

When you went to the branch did you get a receipt for your letter?

If you didn't send it recorded you will need to resend it and start over.

They are so slippery...........

[littlesally]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Stew, I would be tempted to write to the bank to explain your situation .... the cause and what you are doing to stop.
Show them that you are trying your best, but addiction had you caught.
No idea if this would help, but can't see it would do any harm.
The banks must be coming up against this quite a bit as gambling seems to becoming far worse these past few years,
Sally xx

[Amy]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Was your cheque cashed or did they send it back?

[Celestine]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Just specific to the fact that you told the bank about your addiction and they ignored your direct instructions:

Citizens Advice Bureau consultation for The Gambling Bill
Providing credit to gamble (Clause 77)

Citizens Advice welcomes the measures contained within the Gambling Bill that aim to place safeguards on the use of credit facilities for the purpose of gambling. In particular we welcome the restriction on provision of credit by non-remote casino and non-remote bingo operators.
However, we believe that the current drafting of clause 77 is at odds with the objective of stamping out irresponsible lending practices put forward in the white paper on consumer credit, Fair, Clear and Competitive…and the subsequent Consumer Credit Bill currently before Parliament. Citizens Advice believe that Clause 77 of the Gambling Bill should require lenders of credit to take all reasonable steps to ensue that the borrower can afford to repay that credit, taking into account the borrower’s income and outgoings. A lender who cannot prove that such steps have been taken in granting credit where there is constructive notice that the credit will be used for gambling activities should be prohibited from enforcing the credit agreement.
Citizens Advice is particularly concerned that the effect of clause 314 (enforceability of gambling contracts) will have an unintentional effect of restricting the scope of the ‘unfair credit relationships’ test proposed in the Consumer Credit Bill (clause 19-22 of that Bill). We believe that in all respects the provision of credit relating to gambling should place extra responsibility on lenders to act responsibility and fairly. Clause 314(2) appears to prevent a court from taking the purpose of lending into account in deciding where a credit agreement is fair (under the proposed clauses of the Consumer Credit Bill) only in the case of lending that relates to gambling. This seems somewhat perverse given the Gambling Bill’s objective of preventing vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

[stewie082]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Hi,

I didnt get any sort of receipt of my letters that I sent, the lady in branch just took the letter and said they would send it via the internal mailing system, she did check the adress to ensure it was a valid. I was under the impression since they had a record of my dispute dated June 16th that it was just taking longer than expected. Neither of the cheques were banked

I can just download all my statements via the internet banking and work out the exact amount. Do I still need to have the first letter? Or can I shortcut the whole scene and go directly to the new centre set up to deal with the outstanding test case? This has been a long and painful experiance.

The last time I called to find out if they had received my complaint I was put on hold for no less than 35 minutes from one call centre to the next, in total about 2hours on the phone. I was told there is no such thing as a hardship claim and should wait until December for a resolve. Inbrach are really just as bad. No one will commit to anything and or they dont have the authority to discuss anything.

Thanks so far!
Stew
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Wow !! I had no idea there was an actual law setup to protect people like me! I spoke to the branch manager a year ago about my problem. I did not make the request in writting but spoke to the branch manager. They did offer me another card that I could use exclusivly for my gaming addiction and I could use over the internet. Basically I could move money from my current account and use the one for gambling and the other for my day to day activity. The account is still setup and I even have the account number. But the card never arrived. This was his solution to my problem.

When I spoke to an advisor in the same branch last week who used to deal with my account before he was moved to another branch said it was so obvious I had a problem from looking at my statement at a glance, but claimed he couldnt say anything as it wasnt his place to get involved.

Does Non remote include web gaming or would that be restricted to actual casinos?

I didnt know the banks had any duty of care.

Thanks you so much for that.

[littlesally]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Wow !! I had no idea there was an actual law setup to protect people like me! I spoke to the branch manager a year ago about my problem. I did not make the request in writting but spoke to the branch manager. They did offer me another card that I could use exclusivly for my gaming addiction and I could use over the internet. Basically I could move money from my current account and use the one for gambling and the other for my day to day activity. The account is still setup and I even have the account number. But the card never arrived. This was his solution to my problem.

.

I am so stunned at this I don't know what to say!!!!!!!!!!!
That is so irresponsible it's unbelievable.
It isn't often I am stuck for words,
Sally xx

[stewie082]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

His advice was to me was to control my gambling by setting up the secondary account and use that rather for my gambling. Sounded good at the time. But the account is still set up and displays on my internet banking.

3 out of 4 pages on my statement are all from online gaming sites, I admitted my problem openly to him in confidence. Maybe he thought it would help control my addiction. I suppose its like a alcholic going into a pub and having a coke. Didnt work!

I do however face upto the fact that if it wasnt for my addiction I would never be in this mess.

[Emerald]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Hi Stewie,

This is quite an emotive story and must have been difficult for you to share.

Do not blame yourself for what has happened in the past, but be proud of how you are tackling the future.

There are many types of addiction and no one of them is more shameful, or needs less support than another. Each in it's own way is damaging and has far reaching consequences for not only the person who is addicted but those they love the most. You have the support of your family, and employer and that will help you through this.

The issues of charges on hardship must be a consideration, but my first concern would be the debts in particular the CCJ's that you have acquired.

What is your level of debt in relation to charges you have accrued?
Are you now managing to make ends meet, and do you have a structured budget to deal with this?

We can help with you, but the more information you give us the more we can help.

[stewie082]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Hi Emerald,

I think part of the process is facing upto the issues and dealing with them.

At the moment I am not dealing with the debts. I do have more going out than coming in each month, I am able to cover the main debts such as the mortgage and the counsil taxes etc etc. But I cannot cover all the debts each month. I am relying on my wifes salary to help get through.

I do have other debts that I am due to repay and without the fees it just wont happen. If they need demand letters and proof that I am stuggling financially then I have a draw full of them, The CCJ was only awarded recently -Jan this year and I have been handed over to a collection agency for a Payday loan.

So the future is pretty bleak without the charges.

Thanks for joining the thread!
Stew

[Emerald]

Re: Am I hardship candidate?

Are you paying the CCJ with whatever the court ordered? Did you attend or was it just CCJ by default?